Aron Kantor

california | film/video/new mediaArtist in Residence Program 2018

Artist Statement

My film and video practice uses cinematic language as a primary tool in investigations of gender identity, queer sexuality, and self-awareness through a lens of absurdity, metaphor, humor, and popular culture. Experimenting with shifting genres and contexts, my work thematically and aesthetically explores the intersection of opposites such as masculinity and femininity, high-brow and low-brow, grit and polish. My work celebrates “otherness,” brings the fringe into the spotlight, and gives atypical expressions of identity, gender, individualism, and sexuality center stage. My artistic practice celebrates and explores my own experience of queer sexuality and community, while often my playful investigations into identity politics, queer mysticism, and ideas of otherness are expressed in more universal terms through both narrative and non-narrative storytelling structures.

While At Headlands

am currently in the writing and development process for two feature-length films. One film is an historical fiction narrative film about a gay bathhouse in New York that in the 1960s and ’70s became an unlikely hub of gay activism and community. The other film is a queer experimental narrative film that examines themes of self-invention, queer identity, rebirth, and spiritual awakening.

During the time of my residency at Headlands, I will work on these screenplays as I develop my vision and explore filmic language and styles. In addition to writing, I will be researching references, culling comprehensive visual and thematic points of inspiration to inform how I shoot, frame, art direct, utilize music, and how I present characters.